20. They exchanged their glorious Godfor a statue of a bull that eats grass.
21. They forgot the God who saved them,who had done great things in Egypt,
22. who had done miracles in Egyptand amazing things by the Red Sea.
23. So God said he would destroy them.But Moses, his chosen one, stood before himand stopped God’s anger from destroying them.
24. Then they refused to go into the beautiful land of Canaan;they did not believe what God promised.
25. They grumbled in their tentsand did not obey the Lord.
26. So he swore to themthat they would die in the desert.
27. He said their children would be killed by other nationsand that they would be scattered among other countries.
28. They joined in worshiping Baal at Peorand ate meat that had been sacrificed to lifeless statues.
29. They made the Lord angry by what they did,so many people became sick with a terrible disease.
30. But Phinehas prayed to the Lord,and the disease stopped.
31. Phinehas did what was right,and it will be remembered from now on.
32. The people also made the Lord angry at Meribah,and Moses was in trouble because of them.
33. The people turned against the Spirit of God,so Moses spoke without stopping to think.
34. The people did not destroy the other nationsas the Lord had told them to do.
35. Instead, they mixed with the other nationsand learned their customs.
36. They worshiped other nations’ idolsand were trapped by them.
37. They even killed their sons and daughtersas sacrifices to demons.
38. They killed innocent people,their own sons and daughters,as sacrifices to the idols of Canaan.So the land was made unholy by their blood.
39. The people became unholy by their sins;they were unfaithful to God in what they did.